Pro Amicitia et Litteris

The second day and my curse

Will of course add more details tonight, but here are the scores at the end of the open rounds. Apologies for a lack of tweeting, but there have been some issues with the WiFi at De La Salle.

So, at the end of the day, St Andrews A have scored three 2nd places, ending them up on a +1. St Andrews B (us) have managed two 2nds and an unfortunate 3rd, with a final score of -3. Now, just to make things competitive, St Andrews C had a more varied day, also ending on -3. Possibly, we’ll see each other in a room. Or maybe just on the dark side of the moon (yes, I did indeed have to quote Pink Floyd lyrics).

Now, however, for something so strange to be a statistical anomaly at best. So I’ll call it a curse. I’ve been to Euros last year. It was great. Spoke 9 rounds. In none of those did I win a debate. Nor did I lose one. So only 2nd and 3rd places, throughout nine rounds of the whole tournament. In fact, the awesome human being that I am, I even did some statistical analysis on the Euros tab, figured out my average score was just over 75, and I had the lowest standard deviation of speaker points in St Andrews as well. Statistically speaking, I was probably the most average speaker there, ever. And I did not seem to be able to get rid of this curse now either. I finish the open rounds on three 2nds, three 3rds, an exactly average score. Will I be able to break this curse? Will I be able to experience the glory of a 1st place in an international tournament, or the despair of getting a 4th? As the next rounds are closed, only the tab will reveal.

Anyways, enough about me. Hopefully, I convinced you that statistical analysis is sexy and that I’m an interesting person in casual discussion, fascinating in my sheer averageness. Let me tell you a bit about how the day went for St Andrews B. C & A will submit their battlefield reports soon as well.

So, we started off in an interesting first round. The motion was THW require individuals to use all their wealth beyond US$5M for philanthropic projects. The room was rather international, and we competed against a Canadian team, as well as one from Qatar and China. We ended up getting a 2nd, in the most classic way in which one can get a second. Being in opposition, we managed to, of course, secure an opp sweep, being the talented individuals that we are. Unfortunately, the first opposition was just a bit better than us. Our stuff on the table stuck and stuck well though. Pretty proud of this one.

The second motion was preceded by something every debater fears: infoslides. It talked of deaf children, parents and so on. As you have probably guessed already, I’m a massive Pink Floyd fan. Thus, I was ecstatic when, with the room list rolling, Just Another Brick in the Wall started playing. The debate, (THW force deaf parents to put their children, whether deaf or hearing, into mainstream rather than special schools) in which we were second prop, consisted of one of my standard extensions, in which I stressed coercion, deaf culture and the role of schools. Once again, 2nd place. We couldn’t complain about it, but the other team placings and subsequent judging decision left us lost, confused and feeling like the universe makes little metaphysical sense (not that it ever does to be honest)

Finally, the last motion was TH supports politicians who pass progressive legislation, even where contrary to wishes of the democratic electorate. There was also an infoslide (yet another one) on gay rights in Africa, which felt almost like a bit of a red herring, as it was useful, but had the potential to derail the debate as well. We managed to score a 3rd, having unfortunately fallen prey to a little under-analysis. Oh well. Tomorrow’s another day, maybe even one in which we can end up above-average and break my unfortunate curse of never having won.

Oh, and Kurt and I also took part in the public speaking competition. It was awesome, an adrenaline rush and lots of fun. Photos are hopefully coming up quite soon